Low hills—Deep snow—The effect of the sun's rays—Nearly
blind—Daha—The road to Bayazid blocked—The daughter of my
host—Her costume—Soap and water—A surprise—She is very
dirty—If she were well washed—Turkish merchants—Buying
the daughters—A course of Turkish baths—An addition to the
Seraglio—Rich men always get pretty wives—The Kurd's sons—The
Imaum of the village—My host's tooth—It aches—I have heard
of your great skill—Cure my tooth—A mustard plaster a remedy
for toothache—A hakim for the stomach—Have it out—Champagne
nippers—My tooth is better already.
Our track led over some low hills. The ground was covered with deep
snow. We had to dismount, and struggle as best we could through the
treacherous soil. The sun shone bright above our heads; the reflection
from the white surface at our feet was blinding in the extreme. We
staggered about, and followed in each other's track, like a number
of drunken men, and after eight hours' incessant toil reached Daha, a
Kurdish village.
We were here informed that the road to Bayazid had been blocked for
eight days; and that the village was full of caravans which had made
daily attempts to force a passage forward. All the inhabitants were
going to turn out at daybreak on the following day. They intended, if
possible, to clear a track from Daha to the next village.
The daughter of my host took a great deal of interest in her father's
guests. She was a tall, fine-looking girl, with a high cone-shaped
head-dress made of black silk. A quantity of gold spangles were fastened
to this covering. A red jacket and loose white trousers enveloped her
limbs and body, her feet were thrust in some white slippers. If only she
had been properly washed, she would have been a very attractive-looking
young lady. But soap and water were evidently strangers to the Kurd's
dwelling, if I might judge by the surprise the girl evinced when Radford
commenced washing his pans after he had cooked my dinner.
"So you wash the dishes and pans in your country?" she remarked.
"Yes."
"But it gives a great deal of trouble," observed the girl; "and it does
not make the dinner taste any better."
The voice of her father on the outside of the dwelling made the young
lady aware that she would probably receive a scolding if she were found
talking to a European. Sticking her fingers into a tin box, and seizing
a handful of biscuits, she ran into the stable.
"She is very dirty," observed Mohammed, who had overheard the
conversation; "but, for all that, if she were well washed, she would
fetch a good price as a wife for some Bey in Constantinople. It is
a pity that you are not a follower of Islam, Effendi," continued my
servant; "she is tall, she would make a good wife for you."
I now learnt that certain Turkish merchants were in the habit of
visiting the Kurd district in the summer months. If they meet with a
pretty girl, they buy her from her parents, and then, taking the young
lady to Constantinople, make her go through a course of Turkish baths,
and feed her well. Under this régime the girl's complexion improves.
She will command a considerable price as an addition to the seraglio
of some magnate or other. If she succeeds in gaining the favour of her
lord, she does not forget the relatives at home, but sends them money
and presents, besides interesting herself for the advancement of her
brothers and other relations. The result of this is, that a Kurd has
no objection to part with his pretty daughter. If she is well sold at
Constantinople, this is looked upon, by the young lady's family, as
rather a feather in their cap than otherwise.
"Rich men generally get pretty wives," said Mohammed, as he concluded
giving me this information. "Is it the same in your country, Effendi?"
"Occasionally," I replied, "but not always. The girls are sometimes
allowed to choose for themselves. There are instances when they prefer
a poor man to a rich one."
"What do their fathers say to this?" said Mohammed. "Do they not beat
their daughters if they do not like the rich man?"
"No."
"I cannot understand that," said Mohammed. "If I had a daughter, and she
might marry a rich man, but she preferred a poor man, I should whip the
girl till she altered her mind!"
The owner of the house entered the room. He was accompanied by three
of his sons, all fine-looking lads. They were dressed in green serge,
and in a costume which somewhat resembled that worn by the foresters
in the opera of Freischütz. Several daggers and pistols were stuck in
their sashes, enormous orange-coloured turbans adorned their heads. They
squatted down beside the Imaum of the village—a thin man dressed in a
white sheet.
The father rose from the divan, and, standing before me, pointed to his
tooth.
"What is the matter with it?" I inquired in Turkish—a language which is
generally understood by every Kurd, though few of them speak it well.
"It aches; I have heard, Effendi, of your great skill as a hakim
(doctor)," continued the man. "Mohammed has told me how you set his
shoulder on fire with a piece of wet paper. This is very wonderful,
perhaps you could cure my tooth."
Now it is one thing to be able to prescribe a mustard plaster, it is
another to be called upon to act as a dentist. However, the Kurd's
children were all expectant. They evidently believed that if I put a
mustard plaster on their parent's tooth, that this would relieve him
immediately.
Mohammed was also of this opinion. He went through a sort of pantomimic
performance in the corner of the room, suggestive of the sufferings
which he had undergone, and of the subsequent benefit which he had
received.
A thought occurred to me. I remembered that, three years before, my
servant Radford had extracted the tooth of a maid-servant in a country
house in Norfolk. Why should he not extract the Kurd's tooth? And if he
were able to do so, would not my reputation as a hakim be higher than
ever amidst the inhabitants of Kurdistan?
"I am not a hakim for teeth," I remarked to the patient. "I am a hakim
for the stomach, which is the nobler and more important portion of a
man's body."
The Imaum and the Kurd's children made a sign of assent to this; the
Kurd himself did not seem to see it.
"You are in my house," he said. "You have accepted my hospitality—cure
my tooth!"
"Well," I continued, "I have a servant with me; he is a hakim for teeth.
If you like he shall look in your mouth."
"By all means!" said the Kurd.
In a few minutes a servant of my host arrived, leading Radford by the
sleeve of his coat.
"Do you want me, sir?" inquired Radford, touching his cap. "This dirty
chap," pointing to the man who had brought him to the room, "came into
the place where I was a cooking, laid hold of me with his dirty fingers,
and without saying a word led me here!"
"Yes," I said; "this gentleman," pointing to the old Kurd, "has
something the matter with one of his teeth. Look at it."
My servant, without moving a muscle of his countenance, seized the
patient by the nose with the fingers of one hand; then, thrusting a
finger of the other into the sufferer's mouth, looked well down the
gaping orifice.
"It had better come out; but it is very tight in his 'ead," remarked my
man. "If I only had a pair of champagne nippers, I would have it out in
a trice."
"Could not you pull it out with a piece of string?"
"No, sir; could not get a purchase on it;" and with that remark my
servant released the Kurd's head.
"What does he say?" said the sufferer, rather alarmed at our
conversation in a language unknown to him, and the more particularly at
the grave demeanour of my servant.
"He says that the tooth had better be extracted."
"Will it hurt much?" inquired the Kurd excitedly.
"Yes, a good deal."
This observation of mine appeared to afford great satisfaction to the
Imaum and the Kurd's children.
"Have it out!" they all cried.
But their parent did not see the matter from his sons' point of view.
He remarked in an indignant tone of voice,—
"Silence!"
Then, turning to me, he inquired if I could not give him some medicine
for his stomach.
"But your tooth hurts you, not your stomach," I observed.
"Yes," replied the man, "but, for all that, I should like some medicine."
Taking some pills from my medicine-chest, I gave them to him. The old
man, putting three pills in his mouth, commenced chewing them with great
gusto.
"My tooth is better already," he remarked, and in a few minutes prepared
to leave the room, accompanied by his sons and the Imaum. The latter was
very much disappointed that my host's tooth had not been operated upon.
"If it had been my tooth, I should have had it out," he observed to me
_sotto voce_; "but he is afraid."
The Kurd overheard the remark.
"You would have done nothing of the kind," he replied. "You would have
swallowed the medicine like me!"—and a whelping cry from a dog outside
the door announced to us that the old gentleman had vented his bile on
the ribs of the animal in question.